A millionaire Australian property developer who once tried to sue the sultan of Brunei was gunned down in front of his young son outside their exclusive Sydney home, police said Friday.
Scottish-born Michael McGurk, 45, was shot once in the head by a lone gunman as he stepped from his luxury Mercedes in the harbourside suburb of Cremorne with his 10-year-old son on Thursday night, said Superintendent Geoff Beresford.
Beresford would not confirm claims McGurk had feared a hitman was on his trail and had approached police to ask for protection, but said the developer appeared to be the victim of a callous and "very targeted" act.
"We are very open-minded at the moment but what I can confirm is the deceased is very well-known to the police," he said.
"This gentleman did have a lot of associates that are also known to us, and those inquiries are well and truly under way."
Beresford said McGurk's young son was "very close" to his father as he was shot, and though unhurt, had been "very traumatised" by what he saw.
McGurk's mother-in-law Noreen McDonald said her grandson had come running into the house screaming "Mummy, mummy, mummy, quickly, daddy".
"She raced out. He was bleeding all over the place and passed away," McDonald said.
McGurk, who in 2007 unsuccessfully tried to sue the Sultan of Brunei over an alleged eight million US dollar agreement to buy a 400-year-old gold-lined miniature Koran, was alive when police arrived but died a short time later.
McGurk claimed to have bought the matchbox-sized Islamic artefact from a former colonel in the KGB secret police, and said the sultan reneged on a deal to buy it as a gift for his third wife.
The well-known developer was due to appear in Sydney's Supreme Court on Friday over a property dispute, and lawyer Mark Johnson told the judge his client had been murdered.
"He was a charismatic, intelligent, generous bloke," Johnson said outside the court, adding that the murder was "awful, unspeakable."
Local media said McGurk had, until two weeks ago, been facing assault and arson charges related to the fire-bombing of a waterfront mansion on Wolseley Road, Point Piper, which is Australia's most expensive street.
Prosecutors dropped the billionaires' row case against McGurk last month, but he reportedly told journalists there was a hitman on his trail.
Warren Mallard, a private investigator who had worked for McGurk, said he had worked a number of "bizarre" cases for the developer, involving people who did not play "by the rules".
"I would imagine ... that there are a lot of people that may have had what they thought was reasons to do him in because of the nature of the work and the business that he was involved in," Mallard told commercial radio.
"I'd imagine it's a bit of a needle in the haystack in relation to the cast of suspects," he added.
Neighbours said McGurk's home had been under sporadic police surveillance.
AFP/John Macdougall
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